Labornet Japan is a network of citizens, unionists, activists, scholars and others from all walks of life to share information especially about rights and struggles in and outside of Japan. Established in 2001, the group now has more than 500 members, and the membership is growing. The English site introduces some reports shared on Labornet Japan website and other sources outside of Japan.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

There is something going on in Japan right
now. At museums, the planned exhibitions are cancelled, or displays are removed
abruptly one after another only because “an objection is raised,” or because there
is a possibility of it. At one community center, a haiku about Article 9 of the
pacifist constitution, which was to be printed in the periodicals, was censored.
What on earth is going on? In 2012, a photo exhibition of AHN Sehong, who documented
the survivors of “comfort women” in China, was ordered to close for “a number
of reasons.” The exhibition was to open at Shinjuku Nikon Salon, which was a yearning
site for young photographers to present their works. His photos captured daily
lives of those wounded women, whom he gazed deeply and calmly, and the photos were
highly evaluated by judges and screened for the show by Nikon. (By NAGATA Kozo)Photo: Poster of the Exibition on Non-freedom of Expression

UEMURA Takashi , former Asahi Shimbun reporter,
filed a defamation suit with the Tokyo District Court on Jan. 9 against a
university professor and a publisher.He
had been criticized by NISHIOKA Tsutomu, a professor of Korean studies at Tokyo
Christian University, and Bungeishunju Ltd., which published the weekly magazine
Shukan Bunshun, as having fabricated newspaper articles on “comfort women.”In the lawsuit, Uemura demands correction of
the magazine article, an apology and compensation for being stigmatized as fabricator,
losing public credibility and suffering personal attack. Some 170 lawyers formed
a defense team and said, “This is not a personal problem of Uemura alone
but a significant issue relating to democracy and freedom of speech in Japan.”
After he filed the suit, he reported on the case at an event hall of the House
of Councilors, and nearly 300 people participated. Uemura told the audience how
he decided to bring the case to the court, sometimes with tears in his eyes. “I
decided to file the suit to protect the rights of myself, my family, my friends
and the colleagues at Hokusei University,” he said. When he finished, he
received long applause of encouragement. (By M)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

What
are young people and students up against today? The talk event featured at
Labor Festa 2014 on Dec. 20, “No kidding!〜a society that leaves young people in poverty,” shocked the
audience. According to the speakers, there are managers who put pressure on
workers to serve as a slave laborer or quit, saying defiantly, “We cannot carry
on a business if we abide by the law.” At convenience stores, restaurants and
other businesses, part-time workers have become the indispensable workforce.
Students who give priority to studying have a hard time landing a job even if
they visit as many companies as possible. Even the term, “bai katsu (part-time
job hunting),” has come about. TAKENOBU Mieko, Wako University professor, and
JINBU Akai, president of Tokyo Youth Union, talked about how economic hardships
parents suffered are now weighing heavily on their children and how the
children end up having to work part-time and rely on student loans. What should
we do to change the situations? they asked.TSUCHIYA Tokachi’s film, “Don’t give in to the ‘evil part-time job
system!’ Let’s learn work rules by answering quizzes,” was shown before the
talk.The film introduces illegal
employment practices by evil companies such as providing green onions in lieu
of overtime payment.Photo: Youths featured in the film by Tsuchiya

The Osaka District
Court on Dec. 17 ruled in favor of the plaintiff in two cases sued by YASUDA
Tadasu (photo; left), the Osaka Municipal Traffic Bureau worker. One is the
lawsuit asking to annul the disciplinary measures enforced on him for rejecting
the tattoo check. The other lawsuit is to cancel the forced job transfer from a
bus driver to a desk clerk, which arose when he rejected the request from the
Traffic Bureau chief to withdraw the suit.

The district
court’s ruling dominated news headlines describing them as “the judiciary
repeatedly denies the despotic style of Mayor HASHIMOTO Toru” (YOMIURI Shimbun)
and “the coercion of Hashimoto style is warned” (MAINICHI Shimbun).In accordance with the district court
decisions, Mayor Hashimoto should revoke the disciplinary measures of Yasuda
and six others who also rejected the tattoo check.

An instruction issued by a manager of the welfare ministry in 1980 is preventing local governments from providing social welfare benefits to single mothers sharing a house with men, according to a recent media report.
Tokyo Shinbum, a Tokyo-based daily, reported on Dec. 27, 2014 that Kunitachi City, Tokyo,suspended in November payment of child rearing allowances to a single mother sharing a house with a single man following the advise of the Tokyo Metropolitan government on the enforcement of a notice on de facto marriages issued in 1980 by a manager of then Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The Kunitachi City Council is opposed to this decision by the City government and the enforcement of the notice. In the resolution adopted on Dec. 18,the Council denounces it as irrational,lacking in pragmatic justification and detrimental to the welfare of children and demanding the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare,the Tokyo Metropolitan government and the City government that the be rectified, says the report.
According to the newspaper article, the notice by a welfare ministry's manager says that a single mother and a man living in the same house with her should be regarded, in principle, as being in de facto marriage and other factors than living together do not have to be taken into consideration in determining whether they are in de facto marriage relations or not.
On the basis of this, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has a standard to deny a single mother who shares a house with an unrelated man the entitlements to child rearing allowances unless she produces objective proofs that her household account is separate from the man's.
The Kunitachi City Council resolution however refers to some single mothers have been regarded as married to men with whom they share houses and denied the benefits even if they produce lease contracts, utility bills or other proofs. "I do not doubt that the single mother is just sharing a shouse with a man, but we cannot do anything about it," a Kunitachi city official in charge of the social welfare is quoted to comment on the case.
In Japan, such extra-legislative "notices" and "announcements" issued by central government officials are usually regarded as legitimate bases of administrative practices of local governments.?